In this extract of the one of TV drama ‘Bullet Boy’ it shows main character Ricky, a recently released and reformed criminal, and his friend ‘Wisdom’ who is quite the opposite. The drama follows Ricky’s family, an east London and shows the effect Ricky has on his younger brother. This film shows the stereotype or young, black males as violent throughout but also shows a contrast in the newly ‘gone straight’ Ricky, this is created through the camera angles, mise en scene, editing and sound.
Firstly I am going to see how the representations of race are created in the camera angles uses during this scene. It begins with showing the two characters, Ricky and ‘Wisdom’ in separate frames, this establishes the contrast and conflict between the youths. In this scene the shaky or ‘handheld’ camera technique is used to create a realistic feel about the drama, it also reinforces the stereotype of the gritty life for black youths in London. This shaky camera increases as they approach especially when Ricky is the only one in the shot, this would suggest he is more anxious than ‘Wisdom’ when it comes to the shooting. This would back up the stereotypical representation in ‘Wisdom’ and the opposing one in Ricky. A shot is used where Ricky is sat next to the window the bus and Wisdom is sat next to him in the shadows, this shot reinforces the contrast between them by showing Ricky as the sensible one in the light and Wisdom as the violent, stereotypical one in the dark.
When Wisdom enters the house the camera follows the gun and there is a close up shot of it. This is a popular symbol of violence and is shown in the same shot and is attached to Wisdoms arm therefore associating the two together. Similarly Wisdom is seen as a powerful and violent figure as he a low angle shot is used when putting him in the frame and in the same way his target is shown using a high angle shot to establish he is the target in this scene. Also while Ricky is waiting outside there is a slight high angle shot on him to show the anxiety again, this reinforces the fact that he is not the violent character anymore. The camera gets increasingly shaky as the shots are fired to show the all round confusion of what is happening, this time the effect is used on everyone no matter who is in the shot.
The editing is used in this to reinforce the representations already created obviously with the camera work. To begin with shot reverse shot is used to reinforce the contrast between the two representations of race shown in this extract, it returns to Ricky keeping the same master shot throughout however changes the shot on ‘Wisdom’ this is used create a sense that Ricky is in a stable frame of mind where as ‘Wisdom’ perhaps is angry therefore will be making violent decisions. The editing is quite slow up until the action scene, I think this is used to create suspense and to show the apprehension that the main characters are feeling. When the shooting scene begins the editing becomes synchronous with the on screen action and speeds up, this continues the representation of young, black males as violent as the fast pace of editing creates a ‘high octane’ atmosphere in the house.
The sound in this extract is quite obviously used to reinforce the representations created earlier for instance the rap music that is amplified in the house; this is stereotypical music of young, black males and is very aggressive in sound and in lyrics. The aggressive nature of this music reinforces the representations of the black males being aggressive and is louder in the house than it is when Ricky is in the shot perhaps this is used to show ‘Wisdom’ as the more aggressive character. Similarly the gunshots are amplified to heighten the violent representation of the black race as it is ‘Wisdom’ who is holding the gun.
Similarly the mise en scene is fairly obviously used to represent the black youths for instance the costume they are wearing. They are shown wearing tracksuits and baggy jeans which is typical of the ‘gangsta’ culture black youths are often stereotyped into. A more ambiguous use of mise en scene to reinforce the representations is in the opening scene where the wall behind ‘Wisdom’ is darker where as the wall behind Ricky is white, showing once again the contrast between them. Similarly Ricky is dressed in lighter clothing where as ‘’Wisdom’ is wearing darker clothing, this creates the contrast once again. This is also evident in the shot where the two young kids are on the football field, one is dressed in white the other is dressed in black, there is a great shot where they are sat back to back this really creates juxtaposition between them in a similar fashion to the older youths in the other scenes.
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